Note: the English text on the images here are ones I added. There’s no official English translation, nor is there a complete fan translation (to my knowledge). I won’t post the entire manga, for obvious legal reasons. The latest issue of Comic Alive can be imported worldwide via online stores such as Amazon.
The December 2017 issue of Comic Alive was released today, and that means it’s time for another synopsis of the Gravity Rush manga’s latest chapter. Last time, the manga deviated from the game’s story when Misai joined Kat on her mission to gather valuable ore from a rift plane known as the Forbidden Land. In the game, Kat went to that area alone without Misai. At the end of the previous chapter, Misai was attacked by a powerful Nevi, knocking him of a cliff. Waking up, Misai finds himself alone, but the Nevi soon reappears and goes in for another attack. With seemingly no hope of escaping, Misai questions if this is really going to be the end for him. At that moment, a projectile suddenly hits the Nevi, knocking it back.
“I made it just in time… Are you okay, Misai!?”. The person calling out to Misai is of course Kat, who used her stasis power to fire the projectile at the Nevi. “Above you!”, Misai shouts to Kat, noticing the Nevi had already recovered and is launching a surprise attack. Narrowly dodging the attack, Kat is surprised to find the Nevi is alive, despite her hitting its weak point: the core. Misai points out that the Nevi has multiple cores, and there are still three left. Evading another attack, Kat figures she’ll just have to take out all the remaining cores, and uses stasis again to launch a multitude of projectiles towards the Nevi. Unfortunately for Kat, she’s in for another surprise as the Nevi counters the attack with energy projectiles of its own.
As Kat is smashed into the side of the cliff by a counter-attack from the Nevi, Misai frantically tries to think of a way for them to defeat the monster. He alerts Kat to the fact that there’s a large boulder on top of the cliff, held up only by an old tree. Kat immediately picks up on what Misai has in mind, and lures the Nevi towards her. Using stasis, Kat destroys the tree, making the boulder plummet down. The Nevi is too late to realize the danger, and the boulder lands on top of its head, instantly destroying all of its cores.
Finally safe again, Misai shows Kat the valuable ore that he found, just before the Nevi had attacked him. After pausing for a bit, he asks Kat (who he has actually still been calling “101” throughout this chapter, the number assigned to Kat during mining missions) why she saved him. Or rather, why she saved the entire village, as she’s a complete stranger to them. Kat explains that she can’t help but act when she sees someone’s in trouble, often leaping in before really thinking things through. In response, Misai explains that he realizes that he’s foul-mouthed and not a friendly person, and is only really good at mining. As such, he focused on using those skills, working hard to make make the villagers happy. But then Kat appeared and took that spot as Banga’s top miner away from him. Misai admits to Kat that he’s envious of her abilities.
“What are you talking about?”, Kat says in response, telling Misai that he’s amazing. After all, it was him who came up with the idea of using the boulder to stop the Nevi, and he also found the rich deposit of ore, while she had only found regular ore so far. Kat argues that Misai may in fact be considered to be “Banga’s Mining King”. At a loss for words, Misai agrees to work together with Kat, and the two uncover the ore needed to pay off Vogo.
Back at the Banga settlement, a frustrated Vogo can’t believe the Banga Settlement managed to mine such a large amount of ore, and asks Fi if he’s really sure there’s nothing wrong with it. Fi confirms that the ore is indeed of premium quality, and Vogo has little choice but to sign the contract that confirms the Banga settlement fulfilled its delivery.
As Lisa thanks Kat and Misai for their work, and Kat meets up with Syd again, Misai stares at the Shifter, saying “thank you Kat” in his own thoughts (making this the first time he used her name). But his thoughts are suddenly interrupted as a concerned Cecie asks Misai if he’s okay, because his face is all red. Embarrassed, Misai denies there’s anything wrong. Kat looks back, not really knowing what all the commotion is about.
The chapter ends with Vogo overhearing Gawan talk about the Forbidden Land. He confronts the old man, telling him he’d like to hear more about that story…
This chapter was arguably the best one yet, as it explored Misai’s character in greater depth than the actual game. With so many interesting characters lacking screen time in Gravity Rush 2, it’s good to see the manga take its time here. At this pace, it would appear we’ll be seeing the manga go on for quite some time, which isn’t a bad thing! Next month, we’re likely going to see the showdown between Kat and Fi.